Aged 37, a married father of two and working full time; the dream of riding and finishing his first Rás is over. It ended, in a painful crash on a flooded road, about an hour into yesterday’s stage 2. But Paul Smith is determined to return (All photos by Bryan Keane of Inpho)
Having started his first Rás on Sunday at the age of 37 years, Paul Smith is on his way home to Waterford today.
A crash about an hour into yesterday’s 148.7km stage 2 from Athlone to Tipperary has taken him out of the contest.
His knee, split open in a previous crash, was busted wide open. And Smith, of Waterford Racing Club, was forced to call it a day.
Images of him sitting on a ditch on the flooded road with blood pouring from his knee captured his lowest moment; and the cruelty of this race.
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“I’m devastated to be honest,” he told stickybottle last night as he prepared to leave the race.
“It was just one of those simple crashes and I would blame nobody for it.
“But you think of the lead-up to the race, which was two years for me. And you make sacrifices, as have my kids and the my wife. And then instantly it’s gone from you.”
Though bruised and bloody, he said he was more determined than ever to become a Man of the Rás.
“Oh yeah, definitely,” he replied when asked if he would be back.
“I have these three photos ingrained in my memory now. This isn’t my last Rás. I can’t end it like this.
“I’d rather be last every day into Skerries than end it like this.”
His sense of frustration was heightened by the fact he had his sights on a Rás ride for several years.
“I was planning to do it and training to do it two years ago with my own club Waterford Racing; with Robin Kelly and Keith Gater and the lads,” he said.
“I’m relatively new to cycling. I cycled when I was a kid and then gave it up to go playing ball. But I got back into when I was about 32.
“I instantly got the bug and joined Waterford Racing. Then I got the bug even more through the racing.
“And training with the likes of Robin and Keith; you are listening to all their stories about races like Rás Mumhan and the Tour of Ulster, the Suir Valley and of course the Rás itself.
“So the progress for me was to race on Sundays, go up through the categories and try some of the small stage races and the ultimately the Rás when I was ready.”
His debut was to come two years ago but injury ruined his early season. And so he decided against taking to the start line.
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Instead he went on the Rás as a manager. It meant he had a ring side seat from which to watch the unvarnished suffering of the race.
“It made appreciate what the riders went through,” he said. “I knew I wasn’t as strong as the guys on the team. So seeing them suffering, and just how hard it was…
“The fact I wasn’t riding it was a blessing in disguise. I wouldn’t have been ready.”
Last year he decided to pull his horns in and race hard for the season. And only when he had a hard full campaign in his legs would he take on the Rás.
He took to the start line on Sunday in Drogheda and finished in a large group; riding to survive rather than win. But at the start of yesterday’s stage, he said he felt more comfortable.
“For the first stage, I was overawed I think; the aura of the race got to me,” he said.
“But once I had that first stage done; I was more relaxed for the second stage.”
His feelings of comfort didn’t last very long. The bad weather didn’t bother him and even a mechanical very early was dealt with in the neutralised section. But a crash was to befall him.
“It was a very fast stage, there was nothing going away,” he said of the start. “But it wasn’t as lined out as I thought it would be.”
However, after Birr when the racing hit narrow roads; Smith’s race imploded. His front wheel hit the rear wheel of the rider in front and down he came. Immediately he knew he was in serious trouble.
“My left knee was in ribbons and I was put up onto the ditch by the race doctor,” he said of Dr Julian Dalby, the former Irish road race champion and now Conor McGregor’s strength coach.
“The knee was opened up. I had done it before and I knew when I saw the size of the opening I was gone. You’d stick a good ping pong ball into it; it’s big. My elbow was in a bad way as well.
“I knew I wasn’t going to be able to pedal the bike. It was devastation; the two years preparation were gone.
“The bruising and the swelling is really coming up on the knee now. I’ll feel worse for the next few days; I know that much. But I’ll be twiddling around again on the bike in a few weeks.
“There has been huge commitment behind me from my wife Leah and my two girls Mia (12) and Stella (10); and there’s me sitting up on a ditch out of the race. Even the club; the lads have been brilliant to me.
“And Drogheda Wheelers as well told me really early in the year I had a place with them on the race. So I had no worry in that sense.
"A lot of people had really helped me towards riding this Rás. But I will be back, I can’t leave it like this.”
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